finally purchased a hoist, and want to....

[jobby tooner]

so after 5 summers on the mooring ball, we moved to a Nucraft 7000 lb hoist with 12 foot bunks for our 2018 25 RSB 10 foot beam---
have a dealer that is willing to offer us more than we paid to move up to a 30 footer---I wanted to get general opinions on the feasibility of using the same lift for a boat 5 feet longer---the boat has similar tube( toons) width, but they are obviously longer...weight of new boat probably around 6500 with engines.( has 2).
here is our current set up--there obviously would be some overhang with the new set up--don't really mind that the engines might not be covered.

 

[BigKahuna]

We used to keep our 24 ft Tritoon on a 10000 lb. lift with 12 foot bunks. No problems at all! Not sure about a 30 footer with 2 engines on the same 12 foot bunks. Might want to contact a lift manufacturer or dock/lift builder for advice....

 

[Vikingstaff]

Hmmm… good question. I was told by my dealership back in 2017 lift bunks should minimally cover from motor transom & the very rear of the pontoons to helm as that’s where the majority of the boats weight is at. Does the 12’ bunks do that for the new boat? If so, perhaps you kind of are in that minimally covered range?

Next practical question/consdieration: Are those front stopper bars adjustable in your picture? I’d think a 5’ longer boat is going to push forward further when put properly on the lift. The rear of the pontoon supports will need to be at the rear of your pontoons. So it is the font that will push forward more so than the back hanging out further. My guess is the boat will push the full 5’ forward if on the lift properly.

Our originally lift was a 7000# capacity NuCraft per Lakeliving’s recommendation back in 2017. It was a very well built and stout boat lift. I have a lot of faith in them, and only switched to Sea Legs (and sold that lift) for other reasons. However, your discussion of weight raised two separate questions in my mind: do you know the exact dry weight of the new boat? Do you know the total fuel tank capacity to calculate weight with a full tank of fuel?

If the boat is for sure 6500# dry weight, with fuel, you’d be in the ballpark of the lift capacity already. If you have any gear on board, tight. Over already? Add people while up on the lift (even just 1-2), wouldn’t you likely be past boat lift capactiy? That’s cutting it pretty close. How do you use the lift now? Does it only hold the boat, and never anyone on board hanging out? Do people sometimes hang out on it like a dock side deck?

I ask as when we had our NuCraft lift from 2017-2019 the kids and their friends, and yes sometimes us and our guests would go hang out on the boat on the lift like it were a lakeside deck space. It was nice to do. We sometimes had anywhere from 4-10 people hanging out back there, listening to music and talking. Probably times where it was 1000-1500 additional pounds of people. Our boat is about 4500# dry weight, so LOTS of room on our capacity back with our old lift. We had no worries. Your situation though, that’d be different.

 

[jobby tooner]

thank you for the response
i called Nucraft in Roscommon and the hoist guy came on and said
our lift is actually the same one they build for 8000 lb capacity..he said 'you have no idea what we put on these things to break them'

I called the dealer for the exact weight , tank holds 100 galloons ---Nucraft guy said no problem..
we'll see, Dewitt Marine has a Q28 with the 600hp Merc--insane-- although as heavy as 2 Mercury Racing 450's that are on the one we're looking at
as an fyi, both dealerships offering more than we paid for ours in 2018

 

[Vikingstaff]

thank you for the response
i called Nucraft in Roscommon and the hoist guy came on and said
our lift is actually the same one they build for 8000 lb capacity..he said 'you have no idea what we put on these things to break them'

I called the dealer for the exact weight , tank holds 100 galloons ---Nucraft guy said no problem..
we'll see, Dewitt Marine has a Q28 with the 600hp Merc--insane-- although as heavy as 2 Mercury Racing 450's that are on the one we're looking at
as an fyi, both dealerships offering more than we paid for ours in 2018

Yeah, NuCraft builds their lifts HEAVY DUTY!!! Not surprised, but I wasn’t sure. Based on your conversation, I’d be 100% confident sticking with it too.

FYI: NuCraft out of Roscommon is local to us. Roscommon is the county and county seat about 20 minutes from our cottage just slightly east of our lake in Michigan (Houghton Lake). They are built EXTRA durable and are certainly know for engineering in over-kill locally. Glad you reached out to them to get the details and feel secure about it.

 

[LaurencetheAdventurer]

Per the Benny Build Site:

A 25R is about 28'.
Looking at the build tool, a 30 model is X2, or 10 foot wide beam.
So I assume your 25R is also an X2 model.

The 30R model is about 31.25'

Thus, from a length standpoint - you only have a 3' variance.